I’m a born and bred Southern California girl, who became an unexpected Manitoba girl when I went and fell in love with a Winnipegger. I invite you to join me on this journey of adjustment and adventure as I learn to adapt my passion for cooking, baking, gardening and interior design, to this very different culture and climate. Just click on the ‘follow’ button!

The Winter Gardening Itch – Chapter two

I’m excited to finally post part two of “The Winter Gardening Itch” series. I apologize for the delay. I recently underwent major surgery and its taken me a bit of time to get back at it.

So, here we go!

After propagating my African violets, I continue to scratch that winter itch by expanding our kitchen herb garden. I usually start with spring onions. As these are the easiest and quickest to start.

We use spring onions in cooking quite a bit here at The Olenick House, so whenever we pick some up from the grocery store (or farmer’s market when it’s nice out), I simply cut the root tips off about an inch up the stem and let them dry out for a day or two.

I tend to lean toward terra-cotta pots for our kitchen herbs. Their porous nature protects the plants from root rot while allowing the roots to breathe.

I use a basic potting soil (that I get from the $1 store), soak it and let it drain really well before I add the onion root stubs.

Using an up-cycled popsicle stick from last summer’s frozen treats (a great gardening tool!), I make as many 1/4″ holes in the saturated soil as will fit comfortably.

I then place one root stub in each hole, pressing the surrounding soil firmly down around the root stub. Doing this ensures there are no air pockets in which harmful bacteria could grow.

Once all are snuggly tucked in, I give them a bit more water to encourage the roots to reach out for it and establish themselves in the pot.

I place the pot(s) in a sunny, kitchen window and within a week or two, we have enough growth to start cooking with! (By-the-by, I follow this same process with leaks, with just one root stub in a larger pot, and it works great.)

I hope you give this easy way to scratch that gardening itch a try and in no time at all, you’ll have a very inexpensive yet highly rewarding fresh kitchen herb supply of your very own!

Stay tuned for part three of this series where I’ll be planting the first veggie crop seeds of the 2018 growing season.